THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Putting The “Boo” In Boomer (second item): Young voters are saying, “enough with the 60s, already,” according to The Boston Globe:
The baby boom era in presidential politics began with the election of a burger-craving Rhodes Scholar and his high-achieving wife who promised she wouldn't "stay home and bake cookies."
For the 15 years since then, '60s-bred generational themes have reverberated through public life, from an intensive focus on what candidates did during the Vietnam era, to balancing demands for social changes and resistance to them, and coming to grips with Cold War pieties about American exceptionalism and how they apply to a post-Cold War world.
Now, however, polls indicate a strong resistance by younger people to another presidential candidate defined by baby-boomer issues - the same high-achieving wife, whose election as the first woman president would mark the fruition of feminist aspirations born in the '60s. At the same time, young people have provided the base of support for Barack Obama, a 46-year-old candidate who, while technically a baby boomer, represents a clear turning of the page in generational politics. …
"If [Hillary] Clinton becomes president and is reelected it would be 24 years of baby boomer presidents and that would be a lot for one generation," said Megan Carey, a Wellesley senior.
There’s only one candidate in the 2008 presidential race who is not a boomer: John McCain (R-AZ). Huffington Post pundit Rachel Sklar marvels that, “Though Obama is the candidate who again and again is credited with inspiring young people to vote, McCain's Straight Talk Express has picked up a few young passengers along the way.” And radio talk show host Guy Benson (560 WIND-AM in Chicago) argues that the 71-year old, “may give the Democrats a run for their money with the youth vote” in a column published on Townhall.com. Here’s his reasoning:
Perhaps McCain's most impressive interaction with younger voters was his December 3rd appearance in an MTV/Myspace presidential dialogue. McCain fielded a laundry list of live questions from students at Southern New Hampshire University, in addition to real-time queries sent via instant message and online videos. During his answers, the senior Senator from Arizona made no apologies for his pro-life voting record, and vigorously defended the war in Iraq. …
Over the course of the evening, members of the audience were asked to rate how strongly they agreed or disagreed with the candidate's positions. McCain garnered a greater positive shift in the audience's live poll than his MTV forum predecessors: Barack Obama and John Edwards. By the end of the night, 37 percent of the students said they "strongly agreed" with McCain and 24 percent "somewhat agreed." McCain jokingly asked if he could "do another hour," drawing laughter and applause. He is the only GOP candidate who chose to appear on the MTV townhall series. …
McCain's genuine willingness - and effectiveness - in courting the youth vote should not be summarily dismissed as irrelevant.
† All The News That’s Fart To Print (third item): 8th-grade boys at the Camden-Rockport Middle School in ME got much mirth and merriment trying to top each other in producing the “loudest and grossest flatus,” according to the Knox County Times. School administrators raised a stink, and announced that henceforth the penalty for “intentional farting” is detention. It is unclear how they will determine whether a particular emission occurred “on purpose” or “just slipped out.”
† Are Muslims Required To Kill To Worship Allah?: Here’s an animal atrocity that PETA somehow missed: Catholic Cajuns in St. Martinville, LA, celebrated one last hurrah the week-end before Ash Wednesday (when Lent begins) with a ritualistic “La Grande Boucherie des Cajuns,” at which a pig is slaughtered and butchered in front of a crowd that numbers in the hundreds. Just as The Stiletto takes strong exception to amateur butchers killing animals in inhumane and unsanitary conditions when those butchers are Muslim, so too she objects to this.
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